Common Sword-nosed Bat

Open encyclopedia reference

Tomes's sword-nosed bat (Lonchorhina aurita), also known as the common sword-nosed bat, is a bat species from South and Central America. It is also found in the Bahamas, but is known from only one specimen collected on the island of New Providence.

In 2006, the bat was rediscovered in the Santa Cruz Department of Bolivia by scientists Aideé Vargas and Kathrin Barboza Marquez. Prior to their find, it was believed that the bat had been extinct in Bolivia for 72 years. There has since been an Ecological Sanctuary established at the town of San Juan de Corralito located in the Ángel Sandoval Province to protect the species.

Wikipedia contributors, Tomes's sword-nosed bat; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T09:41:00.458602+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Lonchorhina aurita Tomes, 1863

Name authority

Tomes, 1863

Common name

Common Sword-nosed Bat

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Chiroptera

Family

Phyllostomidae

Genus

Lonchorhina

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
9. subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
10. infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
11. orderChiroptera Blumenbach, 1779
12. suborderYangochiroptera Koopman, 1984
13. superfamilyNoctilionoidea Gray, 1821
14. familyPhyllostomidae Gray, 1825
15. subfamilyLonchorhininae Gray, 1866
16. genusLonchorhina Tomes, 1863
17. speciesLonchorhina aurita Tomes, 1863

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Lonchorhina. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 183 records assigned to Phyllostomidae.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=631761 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:3VYBY. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.